


Inspector Ferrington

by The_Beauty_of_Intention



Category: The Fall (UK 2013)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-14
Updated: 2015-12-15
Packaged: 2018-03-17 20:47:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3543272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Beauty_of_Intention/pseuds/The_Beauty_of_Intention
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danielle finds herself compromised by her feelings for the Chief Inspector.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Should I write this?

“Dani? Dani?” Danielle jolted awake. Someone was calling her name. She lifted her head off the pillow and listened for her name again. Her mind shed the groggy confusion as she realized Stella Gibson was there, not in her apartment, but on the phone, in her dream, calling out to her. Anxiety and a deep tossing pain of embarrassment and anger churned in her chest. She had been dreaming of the day she was shot. It was all too real, the sights, the smells, Spector. She remembered the klacks of the gun being fired and the thudding against her chest. Stella had called out to her on the phone, fearing the worst, scared for Danielle’s life. Danielle sat up and moved till her feet planted on the floor. She rested her elbows on her knees and turned her head to check the time on her alarm clock; 3:30 am, too early to get up and too late to go back to sleep. She was feeling miserable. Dani hung her head down again to think through the feelings upsetting her heart. “She used me. She didn’t really care. I’m better off now.” She thought these words to strengthen her resolve, to release the tension and anxiety, but instead it grew worse. Dani got up to use the bathroom then imitated her previous, sitting position on the loo. She became oblivious to time and place by thinking of the aftermath of her shooting. Stella hadn’t called, didn’t visit her in the clinic and was oblivious to her presence on that fateful day of the Spector capture. She didn’t stop thinking of these things until she realized her legs were going numb. The sound of a flushing toilet could be heard as Danielle made her way to the kitchen to make herself an Irish coffee. “I have better things to think about,” she thought to herself knowing Stella would come to mind again soon. Hopefully the alcohol would help and maybe a shower; she’d take a hot shower as soon as she was done with her drink.  
Dani woke up to her phone ringing. Against everything, her anxiety, the caffeine and the knowledge that she should not go back to sleep, she had. She fell asleep in the window seat where she had tried to relax against the foreground of the sunrise. “Shite!” She grabbed her phone promptly and then realized she had slept for almost two hours! She was supposed to meet with her partner Simon Finny at the pastry shop for coffee at 5:30am, it was now 5:37, and her shift begins at 6. There would be no shower this morning. Dani rushed to the bathroom to splash water on her face. She brushed her teeth rapidly and a little too harshly. She attempted to text Finny with her unoccupied hand until the phone fell in the sink. This was not going to be a good day.  
“Ferrington, of all days to show up late,” Chief Burns said with a distracted scowl as Danielle walked up aside him, “Sorry sir, it was an unusually long night for me.”  
“Yeah well, rest assured this will not become a habit or you will loose your promotion, understood?”  
“Understood, sir.”  
“And Dani? Congratulations.”  
The commissioner pushed through the door to the sound of applause, “Alright team, let me have the privilege of introducing you to our newest Inspector, Inspector Dani Ferrington.” Thirty police officers cheered, each in their own way, with a few of them even setting off confetti poppers. Inspector Martin meandered over and set down a small cake on the table before finding a seat for himself and stuffing a tooth pick between his lips. He watched the fledgling inspector redden further and light a smile. She was an attractive one that Dani, too bad she played on the same team, he thought. He searched the crowd for indications that the meeting was to begin but Dani was speaking now, thanking everyone for their support. He watched her face and found notes of fatigue, and maybe even sadness, but then someone planted a cup of coffee in front of him and everything he forgot.  
  
  
“Vvvvvv, vvvvvvv, vvvvvvv,” a phone vibrated on the night stand. “Gibson,” a controlled, feminine voice spoke through the gray ambience of the night. “Stella, sorry to disturb you at this early hour, but there’s been a disturbing development.” Stella reached over with her free hand and turned on the lamp next to her bed; the alarm clock dared to say 3:30am. “What sort of development?” she asked into the miniature microphone. A higher pitched squabble of some sort reverberated from the speaker and into the air just enough to disturb what was once a calm, rhythmic environment. Compared to this disturbance Stella’s voice was a boom, “I see. Yes, I will be there in an hour. Yes, tell Jacobs to have the report on my desk, I will want to review the information before we visit the site. What? You didn’t tell me this before,” Stella sighed and stared out her window, “Then have Jacobs schedule the flight for this evening. I’m going to hang up now. I will see you in an hour,” She hung up the phone. Chief Inspector Gibson had just learned she would be returning to Belfast.


	2. Chapter 2

“Copycat. It seems we have a copycat murderer on our hands. Dani, Glen, you’ll be taking this case. I want you to stop by the Benedetto’s house first thing.” 

“But sir, Katie’s been on house arrest and cannot leave her house without us knowing, shouldn’t we start at the crime scene?”

“Never the less I want to you to start at the girl’s house, I want you to pry and get any more information about Spector, stuff we might have missed. Then I want you to see if you can pick up on any possible chance that she has left the premises.”

Inspector Martin swallowed his last protest, and looked directly at Dani when he said, “Yes sir.”

Dani was just as skeptical as her partner, but she did see the value in interviewing the girl once more. Katie had skipped her first trial date and at her second arrest was put in an ankle cuff. Her mother was determined incompetent at keeping her daughter under control. Still, Dani wasn’t looking forward to this visit. She had tried to put the Spector case behind her. Spector had been sentenced promptly after his first two visits to court. He had complications from his gunshot wounds and was not expected to live much longer. They had to wheel him in in chair and pump fluids in his body just to get through proceedings. Dani was sick of the whole thing as soon as she saw his face again in court for the first time. He received two consecutive life terms and was set to spend six months in isolation after his clinical stay. He didn’t last but a month; the bastard killed himself in the medical ward by his own strangulation. Dani never wanted to think about anything concerning that case again, including Stella; especially, Stella.   
It was true, Dani still carried feelings for the woman, but she couldn’t let her care be any of her concern. She knew better. It was better to stay away from all things Gibson then to go on wondering what could have been if Stella had just put aside her need for control and power, if she had just recognized Dani as an independent woman as equal as she, strong and capable. But Stella never did allow herself to see Dani as anything but her subordinate, and with that she had used her. “Never again” thought Dani. She would never allow herself to be attracted to such… attractive personalities again. She was just as important and attractive, just as solid and confident, she was just, different. Dani was a person with a warm heart, embracing of love. She was expressive and generous. She knew how to get her job done, and she was as smart as a whip (though she wouldn’t spend time reveling in it). When it mattered, when it really mattered, she knew how to be herself, how to be whole. Stella Gibson had tried to view her as what she wasn’t. The Inspector had always tried to compartmentalize, dissect, decide on who Dani was and who Dani wasn’t so that Dani fit neatly into Stella’s world view; a schema built for control. Dani had wished once, that Stella could have let go of that control.

Martin and Ferrington got into their cruiser when it began to drizzle.

“Didn’t expect to be workin’ with me did ya?”

“No. I thought they’d put me on desk work for the first few months.”

“That woulda been dull now wouldn’t it?”

“Alright let’s get on with it now. I don’t want you screwing up the first gig for me, ya?”

Tyler put the car in reverse and they were soon traveling down the side streets of Belfast. When they entered the neighborhoods Dani spotted a commotion and a collection of police vehicles.

“Wonder what that’s about? Didn’t hear anything on the radio.”

“Wait, isn’t that the crime scene we were supposed to investigate?”

“Damn it Burns, you arsehole. When are they going to take me seriously,” Martin said with disdain.

“This isn’t just about you James. I suppose you’re babysitting me today.”

Dani was also more than unhappy. Perhaps they just wanted to ease her in on the case? She didn’t really know, but she tried to not to let it get to her. She had been assigned a job and she was determined to do it well. Just then Dani saw a heel, then a calf exiting one of the black limousines. She had to turn her head as they drove past to get a full look at who she feared that leg belonged to. There, in all her glory, standing in front of the clouded background was Chief Inspector Stella Gibson.

“Shite,” Dani said as she slammed her fist down on the door handle.

A slight smile edged its way out of the corner of her mouth.

“Shite,” Dani thought, when she noticed the facial change.

Glen Martin looked at his partner out of the corner of his eye and raised an eyebrow, but this time, he said nothing.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is not the last chapter, don't worry.

She arranged the newly set items on her desk, her mind pre-occupied. The Benedetto interview had been underwhelming. Katie had nothing new to report and her mother was just as unresourceful as before. The inspector did note the ankle bracelet had been tampered with however, and had made sure to add the information to her report. It wasn't fully complete, the report; it sat in front of the newly commissioned inspector in wait of a signature. Dani was in another moment, the future, thinking of what scenario might befall her wben Stella re-enters her life. Should she go to the office they will no doubt clear for Inspector Gibson and greet her? Perhaps that would be the friendliest thing to do, but they weren't exactly friends, she and the Inspector. Dani remembered all the feelings surrounding Stella Gibson, the good and the bad but it was the bad that made impact upon her decision. No, she would let Stella come to her, not that Dani would ever expect that to happen. The truth was that Stella Gibson was too concerned with herself, too busy and too unconcerned with Dani to go out of her way to say hello. Dani then committed herself to self respect. As far as Gibson was concerned, there would be nothing. She signed off on her report.


End file.
